As I observe some of you teach, I see several clever uses of technology. How do you see information technology influencing your teaching? Have you used technology to engage, inform, or increase students research or critical thinking skills? How does it help? How does it hinder? Describe some ways that you have incorporated tech into your teaching, and how you see yourself using these tools when you have your own classroom.
With all the technology that is available to us, it seems like a no brainer to include it in my lessons. Whether it be just a powerpoint presentation or even an interactive website, it provides students with a different approach to learning and changes things up from the traditional notes on the blackboard. I have been doing some powerpoints on the smartboard and having students come up and write on the board since they think it's really cool to use (and I agree). With the middle school, I had done webquests online to engage students and get them aware and interested in the new topic that we would be starting. At the high school, the students will be doing a research project and I am starting to plan and figure out how I can utilize the technology to help students increase their research skills.
Having the technology is great because I can easily print and make copies of my power points, or email students links of videos or articles, but it does hinder when a lesson might be centered on a video or interactive piece on the web and that piece just does not work.
With student teaching, I've been expose to 2 new pieces of technology that I have never used before. The first tool is the ELMO which is extremely cool and I hope to get an ELMO for my classroom so I can project worksheets and examples on the big screen. With the rock cycle unit at the MS, I was able to show an example of the different rocks on the screen as well as pass around an example so all students had an opportunity to look at it at all times while they were waiting for the example to reach them.
Another cool tool is the smartboard, and hopefully I get to work in a school with money to afford one. I am still learning by trial and with the help of my students all that I can do with a smartboard. I really like that I can write on it and it actually captures and saves what I have written so I can go back to it and not lose what was written like I would if I had it on the whiteboard.
With all the technology that is available to us, it seems like a no brainer to include it in my lessons. Whether it be just a powerpoint presentation or even an interactive website, it provides students with a different approach to learning and changes things up from the traditional notes on the blackboard. I have been doing some powerpoints on the smartboard and having students come up and write on the board since they think it's really cool to use (and I agree). With the middle school, I had done webquests online to engage students and get them aware and interested in the new topic that we would be starting. At the high school, the students will be doing a research project and I am starting to plan and figure out how I can utilize the technology to help students increase their research skills.
Having the technology is great because I can easily print and make copies of my power points, or email students links of videos or articles, but it does hinder when a lesson might be centered on a video or interactive piece on the web and that piece just does not work.
With student teaching, I've been expose to 2 new pieces of technology that I have never used before. The first tool is the ELMO which is extremely cool and I hope to get an ELMO for my classroom so I can project worksheets and examples on the big screen. With the rock cycle unit at the MS, I was able to show an example of the different rocks on the screen as well as pass around an example so all students had an opportunity to look at it at all times while they were waiting for the example to reach them.
Another cool tool is the smartboard, and hopefully I get to work in a school with money to afford one. I am still learning by trial and with the help of my students all that I can do with a smartboard. I really like that I can write on it and it actually captures and saves what I have written so I can go back to it and not lose what was written like I would if I had it on the whiteboard.